A Windows XP Primer for the Eee PC

Before I start to talk about Mac OS X on the Eee PC, I’d like to talk a bit about Windows. The 4G-X comes with Windows XP SP2. One of my big complaints about the setup of the Eee, is that ASUS did almost nothing to trim down the Eee’s XP payload. In fact, they made it even larger by stuffing everything from Adobe to Windows Live onto the system.

The install is so bloated, that Service Pack 3 won’t even fit without jumping through some hoops.

There’s already a workaround for installing Service Pack 3. But, there are a few things you can do in order to trim the XP install down to size on the Eee PC.

First: Trim Windows Itself

Go to Start > Control Panels > Add/Remove Programs > Customize Windows Components

Uncheck anything you don’t need

Second: Uninstall the rest of the stuff you don’t need

Go back to Add/Remove Programs and remove all the apps you don’t want to use. There will likely be many.

Third: Replace MS Works with OpenOffice

Microsoft Works takes up hundreds of megabytes more than OpenOffice, when you remove all the associated installations.

Once you have that off, download OpenOffice and install it. You’ll have all the same functionality, and less of a memory/storage hog.

Fourth: Update and remove uninstall files

Every time you update Windows, it leaves a wake of uninstallation files in its path. These are files you’ll never use unless you want to uninstall an update. So, go to C:\Windows and remove all folders that start with a $ except for $hf_mig$ (that folder is actually useful).

Fifth: Install all new programs on an SD Card

You don’t have to install files in the default Program Files folder. Make a new folder (you can call it Program Files) on the SD card, and tell your software installer to put the files on the storage card. If an installer doesn’t give you the choice… try moving it there yourself once the installer is done. That won’t always work, but it’s worth a try.

Bonus Tip: Defrag

The Eee PC only has 4 GB of disk storage with Windows. Running Disk Defragmenter is more crucial since the free disk space ratio is going to be lower than normal.

Also, note that Windows always runs best with 15% of free disk space available at all times. So, if you’re lower than that, it’s time to check and do a bit more storage clearing…